Impressionism

 In “Defining Impressionism.” From Impressionism: Beneath the Surface,
Paul Smith attempts to provide a broad overview of Impressionism as it
relates to perception and the impression of sense of the artist.
Pointing out that Impressionism was not simply a representation of
transient atmospherics, Smith ties the rise of the Impressionist group of
painters back to the Ecoles Des Beaux-Arts where their dissatisfaction
with the aesthetic standards and rigid hierarchy of the governing bodies
prompted a new form of representation.  Impressionism more recently has
been categorized into four categories namely social historical, feminist,
psychoanalytical, and anthropological. In the social historical viewpoint
works of art are analyzed as a reaction to the current trends and
ideologies and whether it was coherent or resistant. Where feminist
discussions focus on the results of varied subject matter being painted
across genders which points to the limitations that abounded for female
artists, psychoanalytical attempts to access the underlying meanings of
paintings as they relate to the artist’s  conscience or subconscious
intentions.   Anthropological studies point toward the way in which
meanings behind impressionist paintings and their relationship to the
artist’s own intentions or predisposed beliefs.
       The artists themselves for the most part aspire to reproduce the
experience of exposure that happens between artist and environment, where
an unprejudiced view guided their form of art and created the idea of
“sensation”. More than just seeing, the impressionist painters seemed to
revel in both aesthetics and emotions. Smith also touches upon the
seemingly patchiness or sketchiness of many impressionist pieces, and
cites Monet’s experience and skill to show that these effects were in
fact intentional albeit looked upon suspiciously by many critics. There
was also an interest in the innocence of the eye that could not impart
any previous knowledge on a scene and was thus truly a sensation between
artist and subject which was to be manifested through painting. On the
other hand, Smith points to the use of artistic precedents such as
Japanese prints by Monet to learn certain techniques implemented in his
own drawings and concludes that impressionist were concerned with
recording impressions and sensations in its most holistic state, yet on
many levels they were still informed people that learned techniques
rather than painted with absolute sensation.